Sub-Zero - MK1

"Let's get something straight: I am not a ninja, I am Lin Kuei! Scorpion was a ninja."

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Biography:

The true name of the man known as Sub-Zero is a mystery to all. What is known is that he is a member of the ancient and reclusive clan of Chinese warriors-for-hire known as the Lin Kuei. Sub-Zero is as cold and distant in personality as his name implies, with great pride in and fierce loyalty to his clan and heritage.

His father, a fourth-generation clansman himself, was a secret operative for the clan in the United States. He married an American woman and together they had two sons and a daughter. Against the will of his wife, Sub-Zero the Fourth eventually took his sons back to China where they became members of the clan and began training to master their hereditary powers of cryomancy. When their father died, the elder brother finally inherited the name of Sub-Zero and grew to become the Lin Kuei's finest warrior. His career prior to the Mortal Kombat tournament is one of renown.

Two years before the tournament, he was contracted by a sorceror named Quan Chi to steal the Map of Elements, which lead to the location of an ancient amulet. He did not know that Quan Chi had hired a Japanese ninja named Scorpion for the same task as insurance. Sub-Zero encountered and killed Scorpion, and after delivering the map, Quan Chi wiped out Scorpion's clan, who were the Lin Kuei's archrivals, as payment.

Chi then instructed Sub-Zero to follow the map to a temple in the Himilayas where the amulet was guarded by the Gods of Wind, Earth, Water, and Fire. Sub-Zero succeeded in the amazing task of defeating the four dieties and delivered the amulet to Quan Chi. Immediately afterward, he discovered that Chi acted in the service of the fallen Elder God and ruler of the Netherealm, Shinnok, and the amulet was the key to Shinnok's lost omnipotence.

Raiden forced Sub-Zero to follow Quan Chi into Hell itself, to regain the amulet before Shinnok could launch an assault on Earth. While in the Netherealm, Quan Chi warned him that he was only able to travel there because he had a tainted, evil soul, and extended an offer to join Shinnok's cult, the Brotherhood of the Shadow, which the ice ninja flatly refused before succeeding in regaining the amulet with the help of one of Chi's own servants, a demon woman named Sareena.

After his return to Earth, Sub-Zero was invited to the Mortal Kombat tournament by Shang Tsung himself. He only accepts the invitation as a means to get closer to Tsung, after a wealthy and mysterious enemy of Tsung's offers him a large sum of money to assassinate the sorceror.

Though he was initially worried about Quan Chi's claim that he was an inherently evil man, and Raiden advised him it was not too late to change his ways, he's made no effort yet. However, with the money he'll make from this job, Sub-Zero intends to retire from the life of an assassin and live in peaceful obscurity...provided the tournament doesn't kill him first.

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Artist Commentary:

I'm rather fond of this costume design because it was very, very easy to come up with. Basically, I just stuck with his MK: Mythologies look as much as possible, then added the little details that make it come alive. The only real change is that I made his mantle less a pair of straps like in the original games and more a tunic that tucks into itself at the abdomen like in Deadly Alliance. I did this for two reasons. The first was to differentiate him from Scorpion. The second was to decorate the mantle with the Deadly Alliance tunic's stripes and symbols. Why? Because in his MK1 bio, it says it's the markings on his uniform that identify him as Lin Kuei. Well in the old games, he didn't HAVE any damn markings on his uniform...so now he does.

Also note that the flesh on his arms is ever so slightly beginning to turn blue. I did this to show the difference between this Sub-Zero and the one that appears from MK2 on. Post-MK Mythologies, this incarnation of Sub-Zero has learned every trick in the book and is at the height of his power. His younger brother will not reach this point until after MK4, but when he does, he will surpass it, with hands that are completely covered in ice.

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Trivia:

In pre-production of Mortal Kombat 1, Sub-Zero's name was originally going to be "Tundra".

The Lin Kuei is based on a real Chinese secret society of the same name who were the forerunners of the Japanese Ninja approximately 3,500 years ago. The name "Lin Kuei" translates as "forest ghost."